New York 2014 Day 8 – New York Comic Con Day 3

I hadn’t run for a few days due to troubles with my knee following the 21 mile run and two very long days of walking. So, I started this day with a run to test how my knee was doing and ran down passed where we’d been on The High Line and then ran back (around 50 blocks), totalling around 8Km. All this was in the rain though, but as it was along the Hudson River it wasn’t that bad as at least it had a view. Unlike back home I encountered a lot of runners, and I’m sure it was a running club which I had passed due to the sheer number of them in one group.

Jonathan Frakes (Cmdr. William Riker in Star Trek: TNG)

On the way back I noticed that at 08:15 people had already started queuing around the block and behind the convention centre to get in for Comic Con. By the time we got there it was still raining and they were queuing outside instead of in the queue hall, unless it was as well as. I wanted to get autographs from Jonathan Frakes (Cmdr. William T. Riker in Star Trek: TNG) and Sir Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek: TNG and Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men movies) so we headed to that hall first. However it turned out Patrick Stewart had cancelled and was now only doing photo ops. So instead we stood in line for Jonathan Frakes.

The autographing was scheduled to start at 11:00, so we’d gotten there at around 10:00 but then he didn’t turn up until 12:30. The other cast members had turned up and had emptied their queues a few times already by then. In this time Denise Crosby had also kicked up a fuss with the organisers wanting to be moved away from the pillar as she thought people wouldn’t be able to see her. Instead she took over half of Jonathan Frakes desk after she walked off threatening to leave. Eventually as he was about to turn up they moved the desks along one and added a new desk in for her between John de Lancie and Eddie McClintock; again in front of a pillar but this time she accepted it.

Cosplay: Anna (from Disney’s “Frozen”)

Cosplay: Mad Hatter and Alice Liddell

Cosplay: Beauty and the Beast

Cosplay: Link (from Zelda)

Once Jonathan Frakes had signed my book we then sat around and ate for a bit before moving on to the show floor where we once again looked around. My main focus was on trying to find cosplayers to photograph, though I did also buy a couple of Kenner Super Powers figures having knocked the sellers down on price.

Eventually we’d had enough of looking around so we headed to Artists Alley, another hall further along, to see what was there. My sister wasn’t that keen on it so we headed back to the show floor briefly before leaving, having ended up with another free novel and a free “Mini-block” figure of Spongebob Squarepants along the way.

Cosplay: Raven (from DC’s Teen Titans)

Cosplay: Psycho and Zero (from Borderlands 2)

On the way back to the hotel we stopped by the 7 Eleven again to pick up some food for breakfast the following morning. Back at the hotel it was still quite early, but then we decided to head back to the convention centre to buy a figure that we’d turned down when we had been there earlier. This time we walked there pretty quick and without backpacks.

Leaving the convention centre for a second time we then went to The Jolly Monk, a conveniently close place, for an early meal. I went for chicken and waffles, and one of the waitresses actually recognised us and came over to say hello and to see how the convention was going. It was a great restaurant and I’m glad we got to eat there one last time before leaving New York.

Times Square

We then made our way to Times Square for one last look around though it was insanely busy. The Disney store had set up a one way system inside the shop which meant you couldn’t look at most of what they were selling. Toys R Us was better, though with some of the walkway and road being closed for roadworks it was causing chaos around there.

A Minion (from Despicable Me)

We then headed back to the hotel as our last evening in New York City grew to a close. It was at last time to finish the majority of the packing ready for our journey home.